Man raped NRI at hotel, held

NEW DELHI: A 22-year-old NRI from the US was allegedly raped by a man at a hotel in Paharganj where she had been staying earlier this month. The survivor said that she had met two youths in the hotel’s restaurant who introduced her to the accused.
The accused, Jaswant Singh, had raped her after a party in her hotel room. He was arrested from Paharganj a day after the police complaint was registered. Singh claims to be a former merchant navy officer. Police are searching for the other two youths, Amanpal Singh and Varinder, who had befriended the survivor.
In her complaint, the survivor said that she had come to India in January for a study programme with two of her friends. She later went to attend a family function at Patiala and returned to Delhi on May 14 to see off her friends who were returning to the US. She stayed back in India to complete her study tour.
The survivor met Amanpal and Varinder on May 14 at the hotel in Paharganj and they accompanied her to dinner and lunch the next day. On May 16, they introduced her to one Mukesh who planned a trip to Qutub Minar. While she was checking out of the hotel, the youths insisted that she hold on to the room for the night.
Later that night Mukesh hosted a party in her room and invited Jaswant. They forced her to drink in excess after which she started feeling dizzy. After sometime, the men left her alone with Jaswant who carried her to the bed and raped her. He then left the room.
A few hours later the other three returned and the woman narrated her ordeal to them. However, they shrugged off the incident as a “mistake” and even offered to sort it out with Jaswant. They even dissuaded her from registering a police complaint.
The next day Mukesh took her to his village in Haryana to stay with his family. Mukesh dropped her at the hotel a day later and went away. When the survivor reached Patiala, she met a fellow student from her university and told him about the rape. He then put her in touch with a lawyer in Delhi.
A rape case was registered at Nabi Karim police station on May 23 and the woman’s statement was recorded before a magistrate. When the cops took her to identify the crime spot, she spotted Jaswant trying to hide in a bathroom at the hotel. He was soon arrested. The woman was sent for a medical examination. Jaswant told the cops that he is a resident of Jind and had come to Delhi to meet his friends.